Building Stories, by Chris Ware (Pantheon; boxed set; $50). Surely, no comic book artist has ever created anything quite like this: a glorious treasure box of sorts containing books, pamphlets, leaflets and old-timey newspapers - all of which tell of the daily struggles of the residents of a Chicago building. Heartbreak and flashes of hope illuminate even the tiniest of panels.

The Graphic Canon, Vols. 1 and 2, edited by Russ Kick (Seven Stories Press; 512 pages and $34.95 each). Remarkable, phone-book-size collections of literary classics adapted into graphic form - from the Epic of Gilgamesh to "The Picture of Dorian Gray." (A third and final volume is due in 2013.)